Our Church's History

In the year of our Lord 2019

On June 23rd, 2019, Pastor James Peterson was ordained and installed 

as our new pastor at First Lutheran Church.

On July 21st, 2019, Alena Riffel was baptized into Christ.

On August 1st, 2019, Raven Wood was baptized into Christ.

In September 2019, we started Women's Bible Study on Tuesday mornings at 9:30 AM. The ladies of the LWML baked a chocolate cake for Pastor Peterson on his birthday on September 28th. 

We started Midweek Classes on Wednesday nights at 6:30 PM. We started up First Fun and Fellowship events to reach out to the young families in our community. We collected canned goods and supplies for the Phillips County Food Pantry. 

Pastor and his wife Michela also hosted an Open House event for all members to come and visit their home. 

In October 2019, we held an OGT Fish Boil Fundraiser. We raised $1,300 at that meal. Pastor-Emeritus Joel Hiesterman presented on his recent Russian Mission Trip to St. Petersburg, Russia; Estonia; Latvia; and Lithuania. We have a drop off location for OGT donations downtown in Phillipsburg. Check out the OGT tab for more information.

We celebrated Reformation Day on October 27th, 2019. This was the first feast day with our new pastor.

In November 2019, we celebrated All Saints' Day on November 3rd. This was a particularly emotional Sunday as we remembered all the saints who now rest from their labors and are with Christ.

On Wednesday nights, the children of our congregation began to practice for the Christmas program.

The final service of the Church Year was Thanksgiving Eve on November 27th, at 7 PM.

In December 2019, we began the season of Advent. We began Wednesday night church services again, focusing on the Angel's Announcements that the Christ child was to be born. 

Because of scheduling difficulties, we tried something new this year with the Christmas program. Rather than having our normal evening service, we held the Christmas program on December 15th during the normal church time. There was a brunch to follow. The children did a great job telling about Jesus being born in Bethlehem and they encouraged us to "go, tell it on the mountain!"

On Christmas Eve, we sang many Christmas carols and worshiped our Lord on the eve of His birth. The First Lutheran congregation presented cards of appreciation to Pastor after this service.

On Christmas Day, Pastor's parents and Michela's parents were able to join our congregation to celebrate the day of Christ's birth. This was Pastor's first Christmas at First Lutheran. This was also the first time he had ever celebrated the Lord's Supper on Christmas Day with his people.